Work vehicles, such as those used in the agriculture, construction and forestry industries, and other conventional vehicles may be powered by an internal combustion engine (e.g., a diesel engine), although it is becoming more common for mixed power sources (e.g., engines and electric motors) to be employed. In any case, engines remain the primary power sources of work vehicles and require mechanical input from a starter to initiate rotation of the crankshaft, and thereby reciprocation of the pistons within the cylinders. Torque demands for cold-starting an engine are high, particularly so for large diesel engines common in heavy-duty machines.
To power electrical subsystems of the work vehicle, a portion of the engine power may be harnessed using an alternator to generate AC power. The battery or batteries of the work vehicle are charged by first inverting the current coming from the alternator. Conventionally, a belt, direct or serpentine, couples an output shaft of the engine to the alternator to generate the AC power. Torque demands for generating current from the running engine are significantly lower than for engine start-up.